December arrives wrapped in possibility: gingerbread-scented air, tangled lights, and evenings meant for cocoa and careless laughter. In childhood, the only countdown that mattered was to winter break.
Then high school happens.
December shifts into a season of laptop screens and fluorescent lights. Review packets are spread across kitchen tables where wrapping paper should be. The season that once felt magical now feels like daunting due dates, and the once positive anticipation starts to feel more like stress.
Guidance counselor Rylan Smith watches it happen every year: the shift from joy to pressure.
“I think naturally it amps up,” Smith said. “In addition to exams, people are getting ready to travel and families are coming in, and all those things tend to create stress as well.”
Smith calls December overwhelming, crowded with deadlines and high expectations.
“It’s the culmination of something,” she said. “It’s almost like you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and so you just have to power through and get there.”
Some students can pinpoint the exact moment the season shifted. Senior Ajay Maniar, who has been taking exams since seventh grade, remembers when December stopped being magical.
“7th grade is when I first felt the big shift because in 6th grade, I had only taken the exam in math, and by 7th, I had taken in everything,” Maniar said. “So (exams) definitely got a little more stressful.”
In order to keep up with the increase of exams, students have to prioritize their studies and hold off on the holiday cheer.
Younger students are already dealing with the push and pull between spirit and stress. Seventh grader Sara Nieves, walking into her first real exam season, already understands the cost of December.
“I think I’ll just try to put my holiday aside until the rest, and just buckle down and study,” Nieves said.
But even she refuses to let the month go dark completely.
“You’ve got to have a good spirit or you’re not going to do good on the test,” she said.
For Sara, the joy still exists in tiny details like holiday stickers on her laptop. A small reminder that there is something waiting on the other side of the scantron. Smith hopes students remember that a student’s performance in school shouldn’t define the season.
“We’re so much more than a number,” she said. “Grades do not identify our character and our true selves.”
Exams are meant to measure growth, not consume the joy of an entire month.
You shouldn’t have to cram … because you’ve already learned the material,” Smith said. “(Studying) is just a refresher.”
And when the pressure starts to press in and the late nights and numbered grades feel bigger than the season itself:
“Stress is actually ok,” she said. “But there’s a level where it gets to be toxic.”
Toxic stress can be characterized by affecting a student’s sleeping patterns and relationships.
She reminds students that the weight they are carrying isn’t meant to be carried along. The days of flashcards and Canvas notifications are temporary, not defining.
“Once again, these exams are just a small, little blip in time,” said Smith.
In high school, the glow of December is not always loud or sparkling or wrapped in ribbons. Sometimes it’s the quiet determination to finish, the steadiness of showing up again and the small act of choosing to keep going.
Studying Tips
- According to the American Psychological Association, spacing study sessions over a long period of time can improve long-term memory of the material as opposed to reviewing a few days before an exam.
- Research from Time Magazine (2011) shows that cramming only leads to average test performance and rapid forgetting, even during the exam itself.
- A report from the American Psychological Association explains that retrieval practice, like quizzing or testing oneself, strengthens long-term recall by forcing the breian to actively reconstruct information rather than passive recognition.
